Milan Dosanjh
Contributing Writer
For decades, artists have received a lot of attention for their explosive, refreshing, and drastic changes that they undergo a plethora of times within the lifetime of their careers. Reinvention has been popularized as a way to breathe in a trendy style, new sound, ideas, and to solidify the artist and their name with the relevancy at that given era. Iconic artists that are renown for curating pop culture and becoming prestigious figures in the music industry include genre-crossing Madonna and global popstar Taylor Swift, who have both experienced and pursued the practice of reinvention under the spotlight. The aspect that tantalizes me while observing these special cases is that they aren’t just subconsciously acting upon what they feel like doing; an artist will take sharp turns in their career as it is the essence in what keeps them a household name. To further understand how these pop stars curate such a following, we must answer a more personal question — why are we so drawn towards new things? The new iPhone, a crisp pair of shoes, trendy clothing brands; these materialistic desires aren’t any different than artists who are individuals that market themselves to their audience for the sake of relevancy. The question is answered by analyzing how these artists master calculative capitalistic tactics and keep fans on their toes with each era they enter, all while simultaneously satiating their never-ending hunger for the best new thing.
Our ravenous search for a new source of stimuli is granted by how these artists promote their music and personas. People have a greater tendency to focus their attention on something new and innovative. For example, it’s more fulfilling and exciting to try new foods than to stick to the same three meals each and every day; and while some may be able to do that, it will never be as satisfying in the end.
In an article written for Science World, Dr. Sylvain Moreno brings definition to this way of life: “Let’s say a musician, who’s very experienced in sound differentiation, hears a sound they’ve never heard before; their brain will react very strongly because their brain is already trained to capture differences in sounds … The same would go for someone who isn’t a musician, just to a lesser degree.” It is rooted in our psyche as humans to be drawn towards new things; we’re strongly invested in content that is foreign to us. Artists can encapsulate a variety of ways to draw in the attention of their fans by simply understanding what they desire. A specific smalltown country artist gone global popstar, Taylor Swift, is well aware of this formula.
Swift’s roots are country — all from her forced country twang and classic simple harmonies, to even the more detailed aspects such as her style. People loved it. She became a household name at a young age, curating a massive following just based around the qualities she perfectly aligned herself with. Then, Swift ditched her inherent accent for a more southern style, and even moved to Nashville to fulfill her singer-songwriter dreams. Though we know Swift as a successful artist that mastered the craft of genre-hopping, how did she become immune to impermanence after reinventing herself? After Swift’s self-titled debut record, she amassed a great amount of popularity, and began to experiment gradually with other genres. Her records became intermixed with pop-centric tracks, and she slowly began to leave her southern charm behind for classic pop-rock and synths, reinventing herself as shown in her fourth studio album that released in 2014, titled after the year she was born, “1989.”
“1989” was a culturally resetting record that pioneered a new age for the music industry, introducing the classic synth waves and iconic lyrical genius that many other artists also adopted into their own sound. Swift became rooted into the pop music industry, and eventually evolved into an overwhelmingly successful popstar — the rest is history. As the success of “1989” shook the world, many were captivated by her iconic ability to change, and she hasn’t stopped since. Swift has gone on to create 11 studio albums in total while pursuing a quest to reclaim her old masters. During this journey, she kicked off a record-breaking world tour, “The Eras Tour,” that encapsulates all 11 of her eras in a 3 hour show that exceeded over 4.3 million attendees in total throughout the world. Swift’s success is one for the books, but she wasn’t the first to undergo such a vast tale of reinvention.
Artists such as Madonna that have had careers of rich longevity have experienced reinvention to some degree, ranging from changing records and cohesive sounds to their fan-facing personas. To understand the inability to fade, we must analyze just why and how these successful names did so. Taylor Swift recognized Madonna’s ability to adapt to the climate presented to her, which is how she survived for over 30 years as an iconic household name. Madonna’s way of pioneering her career acted as a sole premise to Swift’s “Eras Tour.” Celia Almeda exemplifies this opinion through her piece in Miami New Times, claiming, “The concept of pop-star eras as we know them today was pioneered by Madonna, who radically changed her sound and appearance with each studio album, reinventing herself countless times over the past four decades.” Madonna gave life to Swift’s 11 iconic eras, and it all stemmed down to the ability to change while under pressure.
In essence, Madonna had to evolve to maintain the attention of her fanbase, a problem that runs deep with female artists. They aren’t selected to simply put on a single mask and expect a fulfilling career; rather, female artists are socially expected to present a new set of eras, new sounds, new visuals — all to proceed with their careers. Novelty is something we are possessive over, and humans have such a relationship with the arts that wanting the best new thing is simply second nature. We rely on new facets of music because it brings purpose to our lives — new content is what we have been searching for, because it is an innate human attribute. We have appreciation for the aesthetics of life, and it brings happiness and direction to our own lives, such as new pieces of clothing or furniture. These are aesthetics that we can change, that we may be able to alter about ourselves to improve the quality of our modern day lifestyles. This is called an aesthetic mindset, meaning we are well aware of the arts and how it affects the world around us all while manipulating it within our own lifestyles to further enrich them. If we aren’t able to alter physical and social aspects about ourselves, we can find solace in something or someone else.
That is why artists such as Swift have effectively cracked the code. They understand that many seek to confide within their music and eras; it is something that is constantly changing, and we as humans take note of that. We attend concerts and buy merchandise to further connect with these artists. You start up your car and select a playlist to listen to on the way home from a hard day at work, or you are excited for that new album release that will definitely become your personality for the following months to come. You follow artists and their eras and perhaps immerse yourself to feel some sort of change, even if it’s temporary. This is why the arts are so impactful to humanity, and it’s what makes us quintessentially human.